one year on
Trump, SoftBank, OpenAI and Oracle announce up to $500B Stargate AI infrastructure project
President Trump unveils a joint venture backed by SoftBank, OpenAI and Oracle to build AI data centers in the U.S., with an initial $100 billion commitment and potential to reach $500 billion over four years.
President Donald Trump today announced Stargate, a joint venture with OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank that will invest up to $500 billion in U.S. AI infrastructure. Speaking from the White House Roosevelt Room alongside SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, Trump said the project will ‘keep it in this country’ and counter China’s AI ambitions.
The executives committed an initial $100 billion, with the first data centers planned for Texas, an effort Ellison said is already underway. SoftBank’s Son will chair the venture, with Arm, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Oracle, and OpenAI as initial technology partners. Son noted that Trump had previously jokingly pushed him to raise a $100 billion pledge to $200 billion; ‘Now I came back with $500 [billion],’ Son quipped.
The record
One year later — open only if you can handle spoilers
The Stargate announcement proved more show than substance. While some construction began in Texas, SoftBank never put close to the promised capital, and the venture was effectively mothballed by early 2026 after funding fell through. The project became a symbol of the AI investment hype cycle—big pledges, modest follow-through.